The COVID-19 pandemic, characterized by empty shelves and grocery store lines that wrapped around the block, ushered in a new wave of curiosity about food supply chains and how they operate. This year, locals can learn a little more about the hands that feed them at the third annual Santa Barbara County Farm Day.
“During COVID, people were concerned about their food supply and we weren’t able to go to restaurants anymore, so everyone was dependent on their local grocery stores,” said Mary Maranville, founder and CEO of Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG), the nonprofit behind Farm Day. “One thing that kept coming up was, ‘Is the food safe?’”
This pandemic-borne question was the inspiration for Farm Day’s theme this year: Meet the hands that feed you.
“It came to be about the essential hands that feed you: the farmworkers, the growers, our agricultural workforce,” Maranville said. “We want people to go and meet the farmers and learn about food safety, and learn about how they are adhering to strict regulations, and how the food is clean.”
Farm Day will be on Sept. 18, with tours held between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and attendees of all ages can build their custom Santa Maria Valley tour ahead of time with an online trail map. There are 14 participating locations, including Allan Hancock College, Driscoll’s, Main Street Produce, Riverbench Vineyard, and other favorite local growers.
Attendees can enjoy agricultural activities, farm tours, tastings, and even some free fruit and veggies.
According to event organizers, visitors can learn about seed science, see the newest farming technology—including the Ferrari transplanting machine at Plantel Nursery—learn how compost is created and used on farms, and hear about the “seed-to-table journey.”
Maranville added that Plantel will be giving away hundreds of flower transplants for people to plant in their own backyards.
Alexandra Allen, owner of Main Street Produce, said her company will offer tours of their cooling facility, showing people how produce is prepared to be shipped all over the country.
“One of the things that we found that lots of folks from our own community don’t really realize, is how far Santa Maria produce goes,” Allen said. “They don’t always have a real good sense of how many American families are being fed with Santa Maria produce, so we like to help people understand what the scope of the industry is and where the product goes, and also understand the economic importance of what it’s doing.”
The last time Main Street Produce participated in Farm Day, Allen said she witnessed “the lights go on” for people as they realized what local agriculture means for Santa Barbara County. Coming out of the pandemic, she thinks this year will be even more meaningful.
“We want people to understand how many real people are behind supporting this food chain and just how much labor it takes, how many people it takes, to provide this food,” she said. “Although many people in Santa Maria drive by fields every day and see field workers, they don’t get to see all of the other people that are involved in the supply chain.”
Getting food from the farm to your table takes field workers, soil experts, crop scientists, sales people, and so many other job positions, Allen said.
“I really want the kids of the field workers, particularly, to understand what good and honorable work their parents do,” she added. “I want them to understand that they are part of a system that is feeding fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables to the whole country, and that’s something that we should all feel really good about.”
SEEAG, the nonprofit organization that puts on Farm Day, started in 2008 as a free program for kids, founder Maranville said. The organization first put on Ventura County’s Farm Day in 2013, and Santa Maria Valley’s first one in 2019.
“We educate students and the greater community about the farm origins of their food and agriculture’s contribution to our nutritional wellness,” Maranville said of SEEAG. “The majority of our year is spent educating elementary school students.”
In a typical, non-COVID-19 year, the organization sees about 8,000 students. This year, Maranville hopes to get SEEAG back into local schools to do in-person programming, which includes field trips. But in the meantime, everyone can join in on the agricultural education on Farm Day.
“Farm Day was created to bridge a gap between growers and their neighbors,” Maranville said. “It provides a way for them to pull back the veil so consumers, instead of coming up with their own premeditated ideas of what the agricultural industry is, they can go and hear and talk to the growers directly, face to face.”
Staff Writer Malea Martin is hungry for some farm-fresh veggies. Reach her at mmartin@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 19-26, 2021.